Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9411160003
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: OZZIE OSBORNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
No more, though.
For the Caymans - I found on returning after a 15-year absence - have been "discovered" and so-called progress has firmly taken hold.
Now there are traffic jams on Grand Cayman, the largest and most highly developed of the three islands, and the two-lane road next to Seven Mile Beach - often called one of the world's most beautiful - looks like an upscale strip mall.
The cost of living is shockingly high, partly because of the duty of roughly 20 percent imposed on most imports. But Caymanians pay no personal or real estate taxes. Businesses enjoy the same tax advantages.
Because most items sold in grocery stores must be imported, prices there are easily 50 percent more than in the Florida Keys, which have the highest cost of living in Florida. Booze costs dearly; a case of Old Milwaukee light beer is $28; Budweiser is $35.
This does not keep Caymanians from drinking; for the most part, they are dedicated party people, but some apparently are trying to quit, because Grand Cayman has four Alcoholics Anonymous chapters.
Reid Dennis, who worked for the old Roanoke World-News before joining the Marines, came to the islands in 1969 - one of the numerous U.S. expatriates to settle on Grand Cayman.
"Obviously, I like this place," said Dennis, a native of Warrenton, Va., who lost a leg in Vietnam while he was a Marine officer and now owns Durty Reids restaurant and bar. "But the duty [on beer, wine and liquor] is killing me."
He and his wife, Dorothy, member of a large Caymanian family and a one-time Miss Cayman, have two children, Wes, 16, and Davina, 13. Because of this - and the friendly feeling toward U.S., Canadian, and other expatriates - he feels totally at home.
Most startling to those who've been away from Grand Cayman for several years is the large number of beautiful homes, some costing a half-million dollars and more, that have been built in the past few years. Elegant developments dot the island and there are many beach-front condominiums in the million-dollar class.
Still, there are many people living in century-old homes in small communities such as East End. And some of the residents have never been off the island. They still rake their sandy yards to perfection at Christmas, while some of the affluent people decorate every stone, shrub and tree in their yards so elaborately they would attract attention anywhere.
Expectedly, progress has brought petty crime. Once people never locked their doors; now barred windows are commonplace.
"When I came here in 1969 [from Jamaica], I could leave my car unlocked all day in town," said business consultant Spencer Marshall.
Lawyer Keith Collins says most of the crimes are committed by repeat offenders in their late teens who are on drugs.
"And the government is not doing enough," he said.
To get away from it all, real estate agent Johnny Merren and his wife, Milly, and businessman Steve Foster and, his wife, Thalia, and others have bought second homes on nearby Cayman Brac. People are buying on Little Cayman, too. Land prices are escalating on both islands.
Grand Cayman's emergence as one of the world's great off-shore banking centers with nearly 600 banks (only a few of them full-service banks), together with a real estate and tourist boom, has given Caymanians prosperity unmatched in the Caribbean. (The islands have more faxes per capita than any place in the world, Marshall said.)
The islands' image was smudged a bit when the Tom Cruise movie, "The Firm," told of alleged money laundering and other skullduggery involving Georgetown banks and the U.S. underworld.
"But banks actually must maintain a high standard and meet strict requirements before opening," said Dwight Merren, administrator at Midland Bank Trust. "You can't just come in and put down, say, a million dollars and open a bank."
The land boom has somewhat slowed because of the worldwide recession, real estate developers say.
Johnny Merren recalls that many people have bought real estate and sold it within a year for two, three, or four times what they paid for it.
"But that was some years ago," he said. "There are not many bargains left. What land that's left on Seven Mile Beach is $10,000 to $15,000 a foot. But there's still plenty of room for development elsewhere on the island."
Commerce hums and shops are busy, since the islands got 287,000 stay-over tourists last year, many coming to dive on the pristine reef in the unbelievably clear waters.
Shopping in Georgetown, capital of the Caymans, once was chancy. Some shop owners took hours-long lunches, leaving signs on their doors: "Sorry, We're Closed."
English is spoken in this British crown colony, but with a difference. A writer describes it like this: "Their speech is a mixture of American Southern drawl, with a Scottish lilt to end a statement, all combined to fall charmingly on the ears."
Progress has not changed one thing in the Caymans: the enduring charm of its wonderfully friendly people, who are highly partial to people from the United States. Once we had a flat tire and, when a group stopped to help, we asked them to our hotel for drinks. They came - every day for the two weeks we stayed.
Certainly, the Cayman Islands have never had an image problem as some islands in the tropics have.
The challenge here seems to be in keeping up with progress.
Ozzie Osborne, former reporter for the Roanoke Times & World-News, is the Key West correspondent for The Miami Herald.
by CNB